Green new subscriber

[Tony Clark]

> Greetings,
> 
> Just subscribed!  Not being one to lurk long when I have
> something to say (well, ususally something to ask ;^), I
> post a couple of questions:

   Welcome.  :)

> 1) Is there a FAQ?

   Not really?  I'm not sure.

> 2) What is the concenus here concerning the use of discrete
>    components vs special purpose IC's (such as the
>    33XX's), especially for VCO design.  I hope this
>    isn't a religious question.  I'm quite the novice,
>    so I'm liable to unwittingly stir up trouble (thus
>    question #1).  Anyway, It would seem to help with
>    the whole temperature/stability thing, wouldn't it?
>    Or do the chips exhibit the same driftiness?

   The best way to go is discrete.  The problem with using special 
purpose chips is that they tend to get scarce.  Even with CEM chips on 
the verge of being reissued, it still is a limited source and SHOULD go 
to preserving the synths that use them instead of going towards building 
new synths.
   There are a great number of discrete synth circuits available on the 
net (although most of the VCO ones are fairly closely related).  You can 
find a good many circuits at the following URLs:

http://www.ultranet.com/~mute/
http://www.synthfool.com/schm.html
http://www.it.kth.se/~e93_mda/synths/companies/stopp/
http://www.hyperreal.com/music/machines/schematics

   Also check out National's white paper on temperature stability:

http://www.national.com/an/AN/AN-299.pdf

   Hope you find what you are looking for!

   Tony

-------------------------------
I can't drive (my Moog) 55!
-------------------------------
Tony Clark -- clark at andrews.edu 
http://www.andrews.edu/~clark
-------------------------------